Supports performance-based contracting throughout the State

Olympia—This year, the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) will participate in the annual Winter Innovation Summit.  Policy analyst, Stacey Gillette who serves in the Office of Innovation, Alignment and Accountability will represent DCYF and speak about the agency’s performance-based contracting efforts.  The summit will take place February 6 – 8 in Salt Lake City.  Over the next several years, DCYF has committed to making all 1,000+ of its contracts for client services performance-based, with the goal of producing better outcomes in all communities across the state of Washington.

“DCYF has an opportunity to change the way we do business. Not just with one contractor or with one community, but across our entire contracted services portfolio throughout the state,” stated Ross Hunter, Secretary of the Department of Children, Youth, and Families. “We’re proud to share what we’ve learned so far with others around the country who are equally committed to making an impact in the lives of children, youth, and families.” 

Formed as the result of House Bill 1661, DCYF is the state’s newest agency, bringing together early learning, child welfare, and eventually, juvenile rehabilitation services and child care subsidy programs. DCYF is executing several alignment efforts centered around the development of overarching Child Outcome Goals, including developing an integrated services approach, planning for an integrated data warehouse and research function, planning for performance-based contracting and assessing agency performance. DCYF invests over $900 million in contracts for client services annually and is committed to making some portion of each contractor’s payment, extension, or contract renewal tied to the achievement of measurable performance standards and requirements.

To support this work, DCYF has partnered with Third Sector Capital Partners, a nonprofit advisory firm that collaborates with communities to implement improved contracts for social services. Together, Third Sector and DCYF have developed a performance-based contracting standard, which sets the foundational vision for incorporating a system-wide outcomes orientation and long-lasting systems change. DCYF and Third Sector believe the effective implementation of the standard agency-wide will be a multi-year journey of building the critical infrastructure, culture, and staff and provider capacity to ultimately improve outcomes for children, youth, and families we serve.

At the summit, Third Sector will host a session to highlight DCYF’s performance-based contracting efforts to the Empowering Families Initiative learning community. The Empowering Families Initiative is a national cohort of state and local governments working to improve outcomes for children and families through the use of outcomes-oriented contracting. The Winter Innovation Summit is a cross-industry social impact event that brings together policymakers, funders, nonprofits, and social entrepreneurs to explore the future of social innovation across the globe. 

"DCYF is at the forefront of social innovation,” said Third Sector CEO Caroline Whistler. “They are a leading example of a state agency implementing outcomes-oriented funding at scale. Their work is an invaluable opportunity for the Empowering Families cohort; it offers a chance to see an agency-level vision for performance-based contracting in action, and to learn from and to draw inspiration from that agency.” Cohort teams from Broward County, FL, Connecticut, Colorado, Massachusetts, and North Carolina will benefit from the DCYF story as they actively plan to move their agency visions forward. 

About Third Sector:

Third Sector is transforming the way communities connect people with vital services. We use funding, data, and incentives as levers to impact how governments, service providers, and community stakeholders work together. This process leads to quantifiable improvements in people’s lives by creating new incentives to inspire sustainable operational changes within an organization. We work alongside communities to address challenges such as multigenerational poverty, housing stability, workforce and economic mobility, and physical and mental health, as well as the systems that prevent equitable access and deliver services that lead to disproportionate outcomes. When Third Sector’s work is complete, organizations entrusted to use public funds will have the systems, tools, and data to do more and do better for the people they serve. Third Sector, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, is supported by its work for governments and service providers as well as philanthropic and government grants. To learn more, visit www.thirdsectorcap.org. 

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